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Spotify. the NNL Midsummer music selection
Midsummer in Sweden is about eating tiny new potatoes and fish, drinking akvavit, dancing silly dances, making love and hailing the spirits of the summer. Sometimes the darker sides of the Viking ancestors show up. It is hard to describe it. It has to be experienced.
If you are down town somewhere in Sweden on the last Friday in June you might ask yourself, where the hell did everyone go? Most of the bars will be empty or at least just with people that don't have their roots in Sweden. Like a few immigrants and tourists. Some of the bars might even be closed. The rest of us will probably be out in the bush, not Waltzing our Mathildas but waltzing on old wooden docks in the Archipelago or.on a wooden deck out in the Spinach as the Stockholm slang will put it, i spenaten!
On the night between Monday and Tuesday earlier this week the Pagans might celebrate the Solstice. The shortest night all year, the longest day. The Sun reaches its highest point from where we stand.
But that won't really be a thing in the public eye in the Kingdom of Sweden, not like in Britain for instance. There was a public celebration at Stonehenge a few days ago, live broadcasted on the Internet. And It is possible the Swedish traditions have roots in such events, but no one really knows.
It is possible that contemporary Swedish witches go to Ales Stenar. But it is not the big thing.
Last friday in June is the Swedish Midsummer celebration.
And there is nothing compared to it in the rest of the Nordic Countries.The Danes light a few fires, sing a few songs. Like the Swedes did until a hundred years ago. Lighting fires is a tradition that possibly the Hanseatic League Germans brought to Sweden. But no one living really knows for sure. The Danes still keep by their fires. While on the other side of Øresund the. often so correct, Swedes go bananas.In something that might be described as a Dionysios feast.
By tradition Midsommar is the gateway to the summer. Many Swedes start their vacation that day. Traditionally the farmers had a few days off between the spring and the harvest. Others take their first dip in the lake. Some might skinny dip during the night time. If you’re hard core or want to come in contact with the spirits, you roll yourself naked in the early morning dew.
And there is a sexual and romantic subtext in the phenomena.
The tradition to pick 3, 7 or 9 different flowers to put under the pillow is a part of a mating rite.
Much of the forreign picture of Swedish girls and the free love that spread over the world in the 1960ies is based on a Midsummer look. Short white dress, bare legs and flowers in her hair. Still some Swedes look like that during midsummer. Looking for someone to bond with.
Some will make love in nature.
And those rites are possible leftovers from older days. But in modern versions.
And the lovemaking will not always be with your darling. And sometimes the sex, unfortunately, not of free will.
The Cops and the medical personnel around the country don’t look upon Midsummer with unreserved happiness. They get their fair share of things to do.
Sex, jelosy, unfaithfullness and a big amount of alcohol easily becomes like a match in a flamable room.
As in real life, there are sometimes a Midsummer murder in NNL crime stories. Viveca Sten’s In the Heat of The Moment is a such. Maria Lang’s Mördaren Ljuger inte ensam is another example, that also became an episode in a film series in 2013.
The amount of alcohol and the feeling of letting loose might be high.
Everything happends far away from the city centers. The youngsters might drink way too much. Do stupid things and sometimes get in trouble.
Alcohol, and especially the Akvavit is selling 1000% more in front of Midsummer. Other alcohol is around 200%. Quite a bit more. And it will sometimes have consequences.
The food will most likely be the traditional Swedish Smörgåsbord. Pickled herring, Salmon, tiny New Potatoes etc. With a “Nubbe”, Akvavit shot (Spiced Vodka). Cold cut. Late night BBQ.
Fresh Strawberries in various servings. I go for the strawberries as well. Ice cream and/or cake. In Skåne the strawberries are ripe enough to pick. And sometimes, if in Skåne, I pick them myself, not just from the store shelf. Like a rite.
Even if I write this from a grown ups perspective. Midsummer was swell as as a kid too.
The midsummer night is magic, the woods, fields, mountains, lakes and shores are all filled with nature's spirits. After some Snaps consumption (Akvavit Vodka shots) you even will be able to see the spirits in the woods? The mist, the dew, the fields, the lakes, the woods, the cliffs. They are all full of the summer spirit for those who are there to see it.
Many will dress in white, men, women and children. Maybe with a flower wreath on their head. Some will put on their Folk Costume and dance proudly around the Maypole.
Instruments associated with Swedish Midsummer are Accordion and Violin.
The dancing can be divided into three different practices. The corny “smågrodorna” circle dance around the Maypole, some kids love it. Others, like me, just hated it. For a bystander the Little Frogs dance (Små grodorna) looks like something from another planet. It is that corny. But in some circles it
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| by Anders Zorn at Nationalmuseum |
is popular.
The nighttime, old style of Waltz and those dances. On a leaf clad Dansbana.
And the last, when the sun is on the rise, romantic and sexual intended slow dances. That might lead to some more.
The tradition sais that the girls should pick three, seven or nine different flowers to put under the pillow. That will help them dream of their future lover and husband.
The men decorate and raise the Maypole. Like a phallic symbol. Or not.
No one knows for sure the origin of it. In Fact are the Scholars rather careful to link the celebrations to the pre Christian era. Mostly because of a lack of written sources. They link it to John the Baptist's birthday. Honestly, who the hell will associate this with St John?
I will argue for the pre Christian roots. The Solstice rites.The differences between the Danish most modest celebration on St Hans day (St Hans, old name for John the Baptist) and the Swedes Dionysos feast-like tradition is striking. Like it doesn’t happens the same day and night. And today in the days of increased gender equality. All genders pick flowers and raise the pole.
Finally, there are various songs that are connected with midsummer. Like the corny Små Grodorna, to the mystic songs of Visa vid midsommartid and Visa från Utanmyra. And all those romanticisation of lovemaking and the nature that a bunch of Swedish hit songs contains. I can’t really tell you about our tradition that often are referred to as the real Swedish national day, how it is. Because you have to be here and have to be grown up with it. So I don’t know if this text got you any closer to it? But its the text you get. Skål på det!
Your sincere Rönnerdahl
Sources, for once I post some sources. Nordiska museet, IOFS, Populär Historia and Historiepodden.
